History of the United States of America, from the Discovery of the Continent [To 1789] Volume 5 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1876 Excerpt: ...show of indolent calm, were strained to their utmost tension, rode to visit his advanced guard on the east. Here the commander, William Thomson, of Orangeburg, of Irish descent, a native of Pennsylvania, but from childhood a citizen of South Carolina, a man of rare worth in private life, brave and intelligent as an officer, had, at the extreme point, posted fifty of the militia behind sand-hills and myrtle bushes. A few hundred yards in the rear, breastworks had been thrown up, which he guarded with three hundred riflemen of his own regiment from Orangeburg and its neighborhood, with two hundred of Clark's North Carolina regiment, two hundred more of the men of South Carolina under Horry, and the raccoon company of riflemen. On his left, he was pro-jnJJJje. tected by a morass; on his right, by one eighteen pounder and one brass six pounder, which overlooked the spot where Clinton would wish to land. Seeing the enemy's boats in motion on the beach of Long Island, and the men-of-war loosing their topsails, Moultrie hurried back to his fort. He ordered the long roll to beat, and officers and men to their posts. His whole number, including himself and officers, was four hundred and thirtyfive; of whom twenty-two were of the artillery, the rest of his own regiment; men who were bound to each other, to their officers, and to him, by personal affection and confidence. Next to him in command was Isaac Motte; his major was the fearless and faultless Francis Marion. The fort was a square, with a bastion at each angle; built of palmetto logs, dovetailed and bolted together, and laid in parallel rows sixteen feet asunder, with sand filled in between the rows. On the eastern and northern sides the palmetto wall was only seven feet high, but it was surmounted by thick pl...